Security Clearance Rules May Impede Gays

I saw this off Yahoo News. It is a small story, but it appears to be generating some major criticism within the liberal and progressive blogosphere. I've commented on this story through the blog Shakespeare's Sister, but I think I may want to include my thoughts here on my own blogsite. Here's the news story:

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration last year quietly rewrote the rules for allowing gays and lesbians to receive national-security clearances, drawing complaints from civil rights activists.

The Bush administration said security clearances cannot be denied "solely on the basis of the sexual orientation of the individual." But it removed language saying sexual orientation "may not be used as a basis for or a disqualifying factor in determining a person's eligibility for a security clearance."

The White House sought to play down the changes, approved by President Bush in December, as an effort to ensure the security clearance rules are consistent with a 1995 executive order about access to classified information.

"The minor language change did not and was not intended to alter the way sexual orientation is treated," National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones said Tuesday. "The U.S. government policy has not changed in any way."

Continuing with the details here:

Rules approved by President Clinton in 1997 said that sexual behavior may be a security concern if it involves a criminal offense, suggests an emotional disorder, could subject someone to coercion or shows a lack of judgment.

The regulation stated that sexual orientation "may not be used as a basis for or a disqualifying factor in determining a person's eligibility for a security clearance."

Bush removed that categorical protection, saying instead that security clearances cannot be denied "solely on the basis of the sexual orientation of the individual."

The new rules say behavior that is "strictly private, consensual and discreet" could "mitigate security concerns."

My question here is why did Bush rewrite this law? Somewhere within this policy, I have to wonder if President Bush is caving into the Religious Right demands for discriminating against gays and lesbians. Security clearances cannot be denied solely on the basis of sexual orientation? With this new rewriting of the law, neoconservative ideologues can now deny security clearances against qualified gay or lesbian applicants due to both sexual orientation and whatever other factor they can make up. How many other factors can these ideologues think up--regardless of whether these factors are valid or not? Talk about the potential abuse of discrimination here.

In the comments section of Shakespeare's Sister, I noted an interesting parallel here. I shall include the comment here in this post:

This is just another example of the Republican PR-election cycle spin. Only this time, the Republicans are trying to link their "strong on defense and security" image with their gay-bashing social issue. I'm actually amazed that they connected these two issues together, considering that they're failing on both the defense and security issues regarding the disastrous war in Iraq, and the illegal NSA spying issue.

And yet, it makes perfect sense for the Republicans here. Because they're floundering in Iraq, with a majority of Americans now starting to oppose the Bush administration's war in Iraq, the Republicans have got to find some issue that they can maintain their control of Congress. Social issues of expressing hate and phobias to their red-state electorate is the only political advantage the Republicans may have for this election. And gay-bashing is one prime social issue the Republicans can use with any influence in the red state electorate during this upcoming election. Link the gay-bashing with restricting security clearances, and you have a tailor-made social / national security issue that the Republicans can claim they are strong on--especially with courting their evangelical and southern base. And if the Democrats object, the Republicans can use this in saying the Democrats are soft on national security--gays are not only bringing down the moral fiber of our country, but they are also helping the terrorists.

What is so funny is that sexual orientation has absolutely nothing to do with obtaining national security clearances.

At this point, the White House is trying to downplay the changes in this security clearance rules, but how long will that last? This is a perfect negative-campaigning political issue for the Republicans. They can play up the homophobic fears of gays leaking classified information to the terrorists in red-state enclaves of evangelical and religious right-wing voters. The Republicans can certainly taint the Democrats with the idea that the Democrats are destroying the morality of our country with their support of gay marriage, and embarking on treason in allowing gays to leak classified information to terrorists. And of course, it doesn't have to be the Republican Party or the Bush White House to spread these messages--they can certainly use the Swift Boat tactics of spreading this hate through independent conservative-leaning political organizations.

We'll have to see where this goes during this election.